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Data on tuition fee support for academic year 2023-24 is not yet available as students have up until 31 March 2024 to apply to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) for their financial support package.

In the 2022-23 academic year 5,855 full-time Higher Education (HE) students with addresses in Aberdeen City local authority received tuition fee support. In the same academic year 130,900 full-time students received tuition fee support whilst studying a course of Higher Education at college or university in Scotland.

Data on the Care Experienced Bursary for Higher Education (HE) students for 2023-24 academic year (AY) is not yet available. In the 2022-23 academic year 75 HE students with addresses in Aberdeen City local authority received the Care Experienced Bursary. In the same academic year 1,840 HE students throughout Scotland received the Care Experienced Bursary.

Data on the Care Experienced Bursary for Further Education (FE) students for 2022-23 academic year is not yet available. In the 2021-22 academic year 150 FE students at North East Scotland College received the Care Experienced Bursary. In the same academic year 3,890 FE students throughout Scotland received the Care Experienced Bursary. 

The Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland are statutorily responsible for the scrutiny of local authority performance and financial management in Scotland.

As part of the annual accounts audit process, Audit Scotland or its appointed auditors will assess and report their findings with regards to the financial management and sustainability of a local authority.

In addition, Audit Scotland also audit and report their findings on the statutory duty of local authorities to secure Best Value, which includes the requirement to ensure financial sustainability. Best Value audit reports are scrutinised by both the Accounts Commission and the Scottish Ministers.

Scottish councils have been treated fairly throughout UK imposed austerity but we do recognise the challenging environment they face and that is why we are committed to a New Deal with Local Government in order to ensure the sustainability of local services.

The Scottish Government remains committed to achieving its target to restore 250,000 hectares of peatland by 2030.

The Scottish Government remains committed to funding peatland restoration and also has an obligation to balance the budget each year. Annual spending plans are based on delivery forecasts and budget requirements from our delivery partners which inform the annual Budget process. The pipeline of work changes from year to year and so, therefore, does our allocated budget.

Reflecting that commercial deployment of 5G is ongoing and that telecoms remains reserved to the UK Parliament, the Scottish Government has no current plans to establish a 5G infill programme.

As set out in our 5G Strategy for Scotland, our policy approach on 5G is currently focused on maximising public and private sector use of the technology to ultimately realise social and economic benefits. This work is being advanced through the work of the Scotland 5G Centre's 5G Innovation Hubs network.

Health Boards are responsible for managing the NHS estate and the issues with RAAC were communicated to them by Health Facilities Scotland at least as early as November 2019. A national survey programme was established to provide additional assurance that all instances of RAAC in the NHS estate are known, that the condition of the RAAC has been properly assessed and that appropriate management plans are in place. The Scottish Government will support Health Boards through this process.

There are currently 10 commercial datacentres in Scotland that offer a wide range of data hosting services to both public and private sector organisations.

In addition there are datacentres built by private sector companies including banks to service their requirements which are operated discreetly by the company, as well as a significant number of smaller datacentres which will service a particular local authority and wider public sector which are often located within the organisation’s estate. We have not mapped the full extent of datacentres which service specific companies and organisations.

Datacentre development is driven by commercial investment and developers do not routinely share information on sites under development with the Scottish Government. We are, however, in active discussions with datacentre operators interested in developing further datacentre capacity in Scotland.

ScotRail has confirmed that, where an employee has been off on long-term sickness and has an outstanding disciplinary issue, ScotRail would seek the medical opinion of its external Occupational Health provider, who would provide an independent medical assessment of the employee and consider if they were able to attend a hearing.

Whilst performance in 2021-22 compared to 2018-19 was broadly lower indicating the continuing impact of the pandemic on learning, there was some encouraging evidence amongst for example, P7 pupils that performance was returning to pre-pandemic levels.

ACEL data is one of a range of measures captured in the National Improvement Framework. It is important to be able to measure the impact of the education system as a whole, rather than looking at individual measures. That is why the National Improvement Framework includes ACEL data for P1, P4, P7 and S3 as part of a broader basket of key measures of attainment. This avoids, as far as possible, a situation where looking at a single measure generates perverse behaviours by becoming the single focus of activity in schools.

Local education authorities have the statutory responsibility to provide school education. To support continuous improvement in literacy and numeracy in our schools nationally, the Scottish Government is:

• Focusing on literacy and numeracy within the Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) which has allocated over £550m in Pupil Equity Funding directly to primary schools up until 2022-23 and is investing a total of £1bn over this parliamentary term, including direct funding for all 32 local authorities.
• Has agreed clear stretch aims within each local authority as part of the SAC which, if achieved, would narrow the poverty related attainment gap by over 7 percentage points in both primary school literacy and numeracy by 2022-23 compared to 2020-21.
• Rejoining the “PIRLS” and “TIMSS” surveys, thereby further improving the evidence base on literacy and numeracy performance.
• Taking forward the National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) and the National Response to Improving Mathematics (NRIM) alongside Education Scotland and ADES, drawing on the available evidence to develop focused, “teacher-relevant” packages of professional learning, guidance and support.
• Ensuring that Education Scotland provides a tailored local and school-level support offer via attainment advisers and Regional Improvement Collaboratives.
• Funding and promoting Maths Week Scotland every year since 2017, transforming public attitudes to maths and promoting the value of maths as an essential skill for every career.
• Funding additional national programmes which support high quality learning and teaching, including “Read Write Count with the First Minister”, Reading Schools and the School Library Improvement Fund.

We have developed core standards for mental health services with a focus on adult secondary services. These include transitions and outline an expectation that people will receive help as close as possible to home. The core standards also aim to reduce unnecessary delays in transitions and improve information sharing, including with carers and their families. The standards emphasise the importance of the continuity of care and the need for follow-up support after discharge. We will publish these standards shortly and we will work with our partners in the Standards Implementation Advisory Group to implement these.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering the Coming Home Implementation Report recommendations to reduce inappropriate out-of-area placements and delayed discharges experienced by people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.

This includes working with the local bodies that have statutory responsibility for providing and commissioning services to ensure that the appropriate planning is in place for people who are receiving care and treatment in an out-of-area placement.